Change in Expectancies and Values During Traditional Instruction and Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction

• In Event: Subjective Task Values and Influences on Their Development From an International Perspective

Abstract

Objective. The objective of this study is to analyze change in reading motivation during traditional reading instruction and an intervention designed to impact middle school students’ motivation.
Theoretical framework. The prevailing pattern of normative motivation change is one of decline (Wigfield, Eccles, Schiefele, Roeser, & Davis-Kean, 2006). Recent studies show that there are different patterns of change in students’ values and efficacy expectations (Archambault, Eccles, & Vida, 2010; Musu-Gillette, Wigfield, Eccles, & Haring, 2013). These patterns primarily show decline, but some show an increase during certain parts of development.
One explanation for the different patterns of change is the kinds of school environments that students experience; when those environments are positive children’s values and efficacy expectations can increase (Wigfield, Byrnes, & Eccles, 2006). Motivation focused interventions are one way to change the school environment. In this study we examine how Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI), a reading comprehension instruction program that integrates reading strategy instruction with specific practices designed to increase student motivation, affects change over time in middle school students’ valuing of reading and efficacy expectations in reading informational books.
Data sources and methods. Participants included 650 seventh-grade students from19 reading/language arts classrooms in four middle schools. Valuing reading informational books was measured using seven items; a sample item is, “Reading information books for school is important to me”. Efficacy expectations were measured with seven items; a sample item is, “I can find the main idea of a section in an informational book for school”. Students completed these measures in September of the school year and then received traditional reading instruction until April, when the CORI intervention started. Measures were again completed in April before the CORI intervention started, and in June after the intervention. Two repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine the mean change of values and efficacy expectancies during traditional instruction and the intervention.
Results. For valuing reading, time had a significant quadratic effect, F(1,649) = 27.43, p <.001. The drop in values during traditional instruction (Time 1 x ̅=2.83 to Time 2 x ̅=2.59) was significant at p <.001; and students’ reading value began to rebound after CORI ( x ̅=2.68) although this effect was not statistically significant, p=.08. There was also a significant quadratic effect for efficacy expectancies, F (1,610) = 4.31 p <.001. Efficacy expectancies increased significantly from Time 1 ( x ̅=2.84) to Time 2 ( x ̅=2.91), p<.05; however, this change increased more in a shorter amount of time during CORI (Time 3, x ̅=3.11, p<.05).
Scholarly significance. This study offers further information on how middle school students’ values and efficacy expectancies for reading informational books develop during traditional instruction as well as during an intervention designed to increase motivation for reading information texts. This intervention curtailed the developmental decrease in motivation showing that this change is not inevitable.

Authors

• Jenna Cambria, University of Tuebingen

• Allan L. Wigfield, University of Maryland - College Park